but little of the new general, Pope, but he had read his proclamations
and he had thought them bombastic. He talked lightly of the enemy and of
the grand deeds that he was going to do. Who was Pope to sweep away such
men as Lee and Jackson with mere words!

Dick longed for Grant, the stern, unyielding, unbeatable Grant whom he
had known at Shiloh. In the west the Union troops had felt the strong
hand over them, and confidence had flowed into them, but here they were
in doubt. They felt that the powerful and directing mind was absent.

Silence fell upon them all for a little space, while the four gazed
intently into the south, strange fears assailing everyone. Dick never
doubted that the Union would win. He never doubted it then and he never
doubted it afterward, through all the vast hecatomb when the flag of the
Union fell more than once in terrible defeat.

But their ignorance was mystifying and oppressive. They saw before them
the beautiful country, the hills and valleys, the forest and the blue
loom of the mountains, so much that appealed to the eye, and yet the
horizon, looking so peaceful in the distance, was barbed with spears.
Jackson was there! The sergeant's theory had become conviction with
them. Distance had been nothing to him. He was at hand with a great
force, and Lee with another army might fall at any time upon their flank,
while McClellan was isolated and left useless, far away.

Dick's heart missed a beat or two, as he saw the sinister picture that he
had created in his own mind. Highly imaginative, he had leaped to the
conclusion that Lee and Jackson meant to trap the Union army, the hammer
beating it out on the anvil. He raised the glasses to his eyes, surveyed
the forests in the South once more, and then his heart missed another